"I have a desk and a bed in my room right now," the teenager said. "I wouldn't mind a little chair or a couch."

He's not alone. A growing desire among young adults to outfit their rooms has retailers scrambling in a new way to chase down the ever-elusive teen market. Pottery Barn launched PBteen, its own teen furniture catalog, last month. And other retailers--such as Land of Nod, Bombay Kids, Cargokids from Pier 1 and Ethan Allen Kids--are stretching the age range of their children's furniture lines to appeal to teens.

It's a tough market to target. Get it right, and the stuff will fly out of the store as it does at clothing retailers PacSun and American Eagle. But get it wrong or fall out of favor, as Charlotte's Russe did with its Charlotte's Room offshoot, and the concept will be forced to close down.

Teens, of course, don't have entire homes to furnish. But these days, children's rooms have become combination family rooms, studies and bedrooms thanks to computers, video games and televisions.

That influx of stuff has helped generate a market for furniture to control clutter and create comfort, said Pat Bowling, director of communications for the American Furniture Manufacturers Association.

"Furniture to house computer equipment, television, a game system and all the accessories that go along with these systems," she explained. "Furniture manufacturers are recognizing that kids have all this stuff."

Home-furnishing retailers initially went after a much younger age group, spanning from infants to pre-adolescents. It was an obvious market to target, since parents, the same people buying at traditional furniture stores, would be the same ones shopping at kids' stores.

But the fickle teen market is fueled by a combination of their own money and their parents'. Northbrook's Teenage Research Unlimited found that teens spent an average of $101 a week last year, and the Rand Youth Poll determined that teens influenced $245 billion more in household spending.

Bowling said the attempt to sell teens furniture is a viable concept, given the growing number of children that will become teens. Teenage Research Unlimited estimates there are nearly 32 million children between the ages of 12 and 19 and that number will increase to nearly 34 million by 2007.

With teens pulling from two sets of incomes, retailers trying to sell them big-ticket items such as furniture have the dual challenge of making sure the merchandise has both a cool factor to snag teens and a practical appeal to entice the parents.

Getting teens' attention is tricky enough. Trying to pinpoint what's hot and what's not among that age group can be tough since teens tend to jump from trend to trend without warning--and sometimes without clear reasons.

Clothing retailers such as PacSun and Hollister Co. are bathing in teens' attention, while once-hot Charlotte Russe and Forever 21 have lost their luster.

"It's kind of tough because the 13-year-old doesn't like what the 19-year-old likes," said Ed Nakfoor, a retail consultant in Detroit. "It's a risky segment to target."

Even teens can't explain what makes them flit from one brand to another. Fifteen-year-old Alex McNamara of Fox River Grove used to buy all her clothes at American Eagle, then suddenly stopped shopping there.

"Everybody goes there," she said.

Many furniture stores try to lump teens with younger children and then market their products under a "youth" umbrella. Bombay Co.'s Bombay Kids concept has offerings for toddlers to teens. Land of Nod also cuts a wide swath from birth to the early teens.

"A lot of things that we carry have a wide age range," said Scott Eirinberg, co-founder of Chicago-based Land of Nod. "We want to provide classic choices that you can live with forever."

Kristina Ventura, director of merchandising for Bombay Kids, said her store's similarly broad approach seems to be working. After launching as a catalog in 2001 and building its first store six months later, Bombay Kids plans to have 35 stores by the end of this year and 75 by the end of next year.

Trying to hit a wide age group doesn't work for every retailer. Pottery Barn tried that strategy with its Pottery Barn Kids stores.

"We thought PB Kids would be [birth] to 11 years old, but it really topped out at 9 years old," said company spokeswoman Leigh Oshirak. "I don't know if a teen wants to be considered along with a nursery."

Last month, Pottery Barn debuted its 52-page PBteen catalog aimed at furnishing rooms of 9-to-15-year-olds. If it works, expect to see PBteen stores, the company says.

The early results have been encouraging.

"Everyone's pleased," Oshirak said. "Things are going just as we hoped." However, she declined to provide specific sales figures. Oshirak said the top-selling item is a $129 C-shaped lounger--dubbed the retro rocker--that rests on the floor.